Beyond Alpha Centauri:::: Discussion Thread 5 - Page 2

History Guy · May 12, 2002, 12:45

And by the way, I think I'll start working on another post soon. This time, Morgan will be there, but on Castor C opening a bank or something. Delbar might be in it, as well...though I'm debating on leaving the mafia story off here and continuing after the planned time-warp. What do you guys think?

Kassiopeia · May 12, 2002, 12:46

Quote:

Good heavens! A guy with a soundcard that works??! Incredible!!

I know! Amazing, astounding, dazzling!

Quote:

Won't divulge 'em yet? Ah, pigmy! Well...as long as Greg's last name ain't Sym or something, that's OK...Hmmm...Think of it, though...Scary, ain't it

You spoiler!!!!

[time passes]

Hahaa, got you on that one...

Sym was really not in my sphere of imagination.

History Guy · May 12, 2002, 12:49

*Falls over dead in absolute horror*

What??????????!!!! Greg Sym???

Oh...it's a joke...OK...

Kassiopeia · May 12, 2002, 12:52

Oh good gracious, I hope I didn't kill you with that shock. Oh well, I nearly suffered a heart attack when I heard the B5 Season Five opening theme. MY GOD! Now that's music!

We wouldn't want to risk this turning into The Bold and the Beautiful, do we?

History Guy · May 12, 2002, 12:57

No, actually, it wasn't as much the shock as the horrible after taste. Greg Sym? I kept repeating this to myself. Greg Sym? Greg Sym? Greg? Sym? Noooooo! Then, a bucket of water splashed me in the face and I came to my senses.

Hey hey no! Definetly not, my Earther pal.

Kassiopeia · May 12, 2002, 13:09

'was thinking a longer name then Sym.
Filkins, well, his first name can't be quite ordinary since everyone calls him by his surname.

Do you Americans actually watch that show? I always thought it was just crappy leftovers for retired Finnish ladies.

History Guy · May 12, 2002, 13:13

A longer name than Sym...hmmm...Von Uppderrkrussenschnoot? Guess not...a first name for Filkins...you already mentioned on in the story thread...Humbert, wasn't it?

I don't watch that show. It's strictly made for retired Finnish ladies, I think.

Kassiopeia · May 12, 2002, 13:54

Humbert? Oh yes, Humbert!. That's his... first name. His middlename, yes... erm...

Well, for a person who can't remember his bank cards ID number even after using it for n + 10 times...

Mellian · May 12, 2002, 14:37

Nice post History

as for the mafia...was thinking about the Pirate mafia clan(s)...just mainly have one called the Syndicates, or Orion Syndicates.... they deal with the blackmarket goods, arms, have satellite mafias on various worlds, and so on. A rival to some other major mafias like your Morganite one? Thinking to have them part of the Kane Bloc...mainly supporting Kane and seeing the opportunities if he succeeds in establishing the Pirate Empire.

What would be a good name for research type Pirate clan? like, a clan that does the basic Pirate stuff to survive, but play around with technologies? ...sometime illegal forms of research (depending on the faction)...

I don't when to start, but mainly thinking will happen during the time warp.... but after acquiring the Drone androids, and some help of runaway university scientist or two (maybe others) with some data angels, succeeded in making the Battle Droid (general military type) that will help with the manpower problem. build as many of them as they can, to replace various jobs in ships...freeing up organic beings for other things and stretch them out more with other ships. Also a small army of them are built which will be use to help take Outreach, a rogue independent world filled with city states and gangs fighting among themselves...and world which the Pirates and Data Angels generally have a lot of influence as they have various holdings in the (unnamed...any ideas?) system somewhere high in the galatic disk....opposite from the Protectorate and Dosi.

Wolverines takes the systems, and declates the formation of the Pirate Empire and so on...which does lead to some battles of dominance between the Kane Bloc and clans who oppose (generally the dislikes (Larionovs, Blood Eagles, etc) and some peaceful neutrals (Wanderers, and other minor clans). After the Kane's position is secure, he declares the formation of the Pirate Empire officially to the other factions.... will have the Terran Alliance officially recognizing them and their claim on the Outreach system.... i know i know, but doesn't mean they will be best buds... TA made a deal with Kane, they'll recognize them as long as none of their clans and so on attack TA or prey on their merchants and so on.

Then whatever happens concerning the Pirates and others will happen after the timewarp.... I could see the Morganites, Drones and Spartans not liking that, lol most likely the Peacekeepers and so on as well.

what do people think?

-Mellian

History Guy · May 12, 2002, 15:01

Kass-- Yes...it's Humbert...Humbert, I say!

LMP-- Thanks! The ideas sound ok to me. Morgan's Hideaway has become a hotbed of mafia activity.

Kassiopeia · May 12, 2002, 16:20

I guess it's Humbert then. You see, my brain is often disconnected without using the prompt "Power" button, located conviniently in my armpit, and as such, my disc needs serious defragmentation.

*runs BrainFrag*

Mr. President · May 12, 2002, 19:19

Is the Orion Cup going to be national teams or clubs? I was thinking national teams, but if people want clubs we can go that way.

Oh my god, that signature virus thing made it over here! My sources tell me it's been going around Space Battles for about three years.

Mr. President · May 12, 2002, 19:31

I almost forgot. I made up an international soccer rankings ladder, as of before the Orion Cup. Lakedaemon and the Hive are omitted, because they've been isolated, as are the Pirates and the Angels due to the lack of a central government and football association.

1. Morgan Interstellar
2. Peacekeeping Forces
3. Mars Combine
4. Firaxis
5. Lord’s Believers
6. Drone Republic
7. Earth Coalition
8. Spartan Federation
9. Concordia
10. Star Children of Gaia
11. University Commonwealth of States
12. Venus
13. Cybernetic Consciousness

I put Morgan first because I thought he'd be able to invest the most in sports infrastructure and training programs. Peacekeepers and Mars also seemed like they'd be good, and Firaxis' national obsession is soccer (and a lot of their people originally came from South America). Spartan discipline might see them higher up if most of their players didn't leave for military duty in their early 20s. The University is low because they put more emphasis on science than on sports, and the Consciousness is efficient but lacks the flair of other teams.

Comments? Questions? Death threats?

Quote:

Morgan Stadium in the second largest city on the Capital Planet, the city known as 'Sky Towers City', for the largest buildings around. One of the tallest buildings in existence (in 2701), the Morgan Bank HQ stands there. It's also the home to the Hot Springs Recreation Center which is, like Morgan's Hideaway, quite the tourist spot. If the Orion Cup is held in Morganland, that's where it'd probably be.

Sounds cool from here. It ought to be a rip-roaring tournament.

You sure you want an Australian coach for the Hawks? Have you ever watched the league here?

P.S. I like "Morganland". You need a name like that for a country. I used to call myself "Morgania" in Alpha Centauri.

P.P.S. We could make the Orion Axis very NATO-like, and have a massive debate on whether to admit new members and which ones to admit. Takers?

Mr. President · May 12, 2002, 21:36

New story section casts Kristy Adams in somewhat of a more human light. It started off as a story about Ophelia, but became more of a window into her psyche. I also forgot how old I made her in the Character Thread.

Additionally, it was my 500th post, allowing me to use Urza's face as my Apolyton face! Hurrah!

/me does the 500 post dance

He almost looks like me, except for the fact that he's supposed to have ash-blond hair and green eyes, and I don't have any cloaks as nice as that.

Sprayber · May 12, 2002, 23:13

http://www.geocities.com/kessel74/Fo...?1021266343420

click on the above link and see if any of the logos and flags strike your fancy. I took the one you sent and got you a clearer tree and star. what do you think. the page may be slow loading

Mellian · May 13, 2002, 00:46

here is names of the bigger Pirate clans in the Pirate Faction, and the sides concerning the "revolution" kane is trying to achieve. remember, below is base on Pirate standards

Kane Bloc

Wolverine Clan (most dominant clan, also quite disliked by some factions. their strength, size, influence and technology makes them powerful within the faction)

Nautilus Pirates Clan (neutral and doesn't get involve in piracy and so on, so factions can't exactly jump on them...but they do support kane. they some diplomatic connections with other factions, have the biggest population out of the clans as well as infratruture and industry. they are quite strong too and decently advance in tech comparison to others)

Novan Clan (now, they really wanted by the morganites, spartans and drones. they mercenaries, but will be on the run for a bit... Joe Nova supports Kane mainly out of convenience. quite good in small ship and fighter warfare. advance and pretty good with gears, which will benefit Kane)

Drake's Privateers Clan (biggest privateer clan and have lots of connections with the independent worlds.)

Data Angels Clan (really a seperate faction, but act as a clan within the pirate faction. they support Kane because it will finally get the pirates more organized and have better chance of establishing structure. they help Kane alot)

Kell Hounds Clan (a mercenary clan who hasn't done a lot of work in the past bit, but still strong enough to survive. they seek structure, so supports Kane because of it. benefits Kane strength wise)

Wolf Dragoon Clan (another merc clan who hasn't done a lot of work lately. they support Kane as mainly something to do when you come down to it, but support of Kane's ideals concerning the Pirate Clan. benefits Kane because of their strength and them operating their own intelligence network)

Orion Syndicate Clan (a major mafia clan who operates/support a lot of satellite mafias, crime organizations, smugling operations, arms dealing and so on. They are not very powerful in ships, but they do have alot of connections and have holdings within most of the major factions. They support Kane because of the opportunities they may take advantage of if Kane pulls off his revolution of the Pirate Clan. benefit Kane because of their connections and resources within other factions.)

Nova Cat Clan (a mystical clan who became a neutral in the past decade mainly due to lack of interesting and them succeeding to become self-sufficient. they are still active in Pirate Faction affairs. supports Kane's ideals)

Ghost Bear Clan (honorable big tough and industrious clan who, like the nova cats, became neutral in the last 50 years and still active in Pirate affairs. supports Kane's ideals)

Diamond Shark Clan (generally supports Kane)

Crescent Hawk Clan (generally supports Kane)

Snow Raven Clan (generally supports Kane)

Coyote Clan (generally supports Kane)

(still figuring out the name of research type clan) Clan (they go off pirating convoys/colonies/stations/etc that may have some technological goods or/and equipment or/and data. they technology addicts and pretty much like University, in a Pirate Faction sort of way... top runner in finding a way to fix the manpower problem by dwelling into cloning technologies and genetic engineering, but won't succeed for not few years)

there is few other clans which i won't name at this time

Opposers

Blood Eagle Clan (they support Kane's ideals...but doesn't like Kane's position against raider clans and the dislikes as they are a raider clan that is dislike within the Pirate Faction. due to their strength and power, they are pretty much the most dominant of the Opposers.)

Larionov Clan (the raiding as been decimated in the past decade or so due to their dislikable ways. the currently leaderless clan generally opposes Kane and does whatever to stop him to achieve his goals of uniting the clan, even thought is pretty futile due to their capabalities and strength/size.)

Chaos Makers Clan (one of the biggest of the opposers in strength and size, they oppose Kane as his ideals and goals goes against their chaotic beliefs. and they are also marked as Dislike.)

Smoke Jaguar Clan (second biggest of the opposers, they are against Kane mainly because they prefer the Pirate Faction as it is now)

Steel Viper Clan (one of the biggest of the opposers and generally against Kane for same reasons as the Jaguars)

Widowmaker Clan (generally opposes Kane)

Blood Spirit Clan (generally opposes Kane)

Cloud Cobra Clan (generally opposes kane)

Morgraine's Valkyrate Clan (not an active pirate clan and generally keep to themselves, but they are against Kane ideals as it threatens the clan's autonomy and so on)

few others

Neutral

Diamond Sword Clan (undecided)

Peacemakers Clan (involved in the Pirate Faction, but don't really get involve in Pirate affairs)

Starwolf Clan (rather wait it out. their holdings located in the deep Periphery of Human space, so bit pointless to get involve)

Phoenix Clan (rather not get involved in the affair, a neutral clan as well)

Star Adder Clan (undecided)

Morrison's Extractors (neutral miner clan)

Burrock Clan (supports kane, but not interested in getting involved)

Mongoose Clan (same as the Burrock clan)

Locust Clan (supports both sides in the "dispute", so won't get involved)

others

Mr. President · May 13, 2002, 01:52

Quote:

Originally posted by Sprayber
http://www.geocities.com/kessel74/Fo...?1021266343420

click on the above link and see if any of the logos and flags strike your fancy. I took the one you sent and got you a clearer tree and star. what do you think. the page may be slow loading

Gosh, you didn't have to go to all that trouble!

They're all very, very cool, but from the flags my favorite is number 8, and my favorite logo is B. I couldn't figure out a way to make them tree-ish with my pathetic graphics skills, and since Firaxis is the "World of Trees" that might be important.

I gotta know: how did you make all those flags so nice? My computer art skills are miles below that.

Sprayber · May 13, 2002, 02:10

Quote:

Originally posted by Mr. President

Gosh, you didn't have to go to all that trouble!

They're all very, very cool, but from the flags my favorite is number 8, and my favorite logo is B. I couldn't figure out a way to make them tree-ish with my pathetic graphics skills, and since Firaxis is the "World of Trees" that might be important.

I gotta know: how did you make all those flags so nice? My computer art skills are miles below that.

no trouble. I had an hour to kill and had some ideas floating in my head. As to how. It's just a matter of thinking of the right look. I used real flags as base templates and then went about modifiying them to what was in my head

the tree outline was done using paint. after working in paint I transfer to my Photostudio 2000 and do all the resizing and color shading and and save it as a jpeg there. If you notice on the page the images are sligthly blurry. that happens when you transfer to jpeg. I still have all the original bmps so thats no problem. all i still have different templates for what you see and a few others. A was actully meant to be the gold seal of Firaxis. If you notice many countries have their flag, then they have a totally different seal.

I got a lot of Spartan images stored away and I'm waiting to get them all done before uploading.

Sprayber · May 13, 2002, 02:13

And congrats on the 500th post.

Mr. President · May 13, 2002, 03:08

I do like A, so maybe we could jam that in somewhere.

Probably the thing I did wrong was trying to re-size and color, whatnot, in Paint. It did some pretty horrible things before I finished that flag.

Based on what I've seen already, I can't wait for the rest of your images.

Quote:

And congrats on the 500th post.

Thanks!

I've been saving this avatar for ages now, waiting to be able to use it. Only another 500 to King-dom!

Mr. President · May 13, 2002, 06:53

Well, smack me stupid and send me to Mingapulco, 'cause this must be my fifteenth post today. The point? Ah, yes! I've made up Orion Cup qualifying groups! *La la la laaaa!* Now, one question remains: Do we sprinkle qualifying matches into the story now, or do I make up results, do the draw for the Orion Cup, and we sprinkle that into the story?

Actually, I realized I forgot Titan/the Saturn Kingdom. Are they going to get a team together in time for the qualifiers?

Here's the groups as they are now (minus Titan). Teams play against the other teams in their group, home and away; three points for a win, one for a draw, none for a loss. Since we don't have many countries, four will qualify from each group. That also gives us a good number of participants for the finals. The Orion Cup will feature two groups of four, with each team playing each team in its group only once. Morgan qualifies automatically as the host. The first- and second-placed teams from these groups qualify for the semi-finals, which are one-off games. If anyone doesn't understand any of that, just let me know:

Group A

Firaxis
Drone Republic
Star Children of Gaia
Earth Coalition
Lord's Believers
Concordia

Firaxis and the Believers are the favorites for first and second place. Earth is likely to make the finals as well, and the Drone Republic could well get in. By far the more open of the qualifying groups.

Group B

University Commonwealth of States
Peacekeeping Forces
Mars Combine
Venus
Cybernetic Consciousness
Spartan Federation

Mars and the Peacekeepers will be hoping to dominate this group, although the Spartans could spring a couple of surprises.

Any ideas/problems, just holler.

Kassiopeia · May 13, 2002, 07:39

*scurries off to create the Coalition soccer team, well, at least give 'em captain and coach names*

History Guy · May 13, 2002, 10:36

Kass-- Ah, that's tough...brain in the armpit...I had a cousin like that...

My computer skills are beyond comparison with anybody's...they are simply so doggone bad!

Mr. President-- Nice avatar...I was thinking national teams. The Captain of the Hawks: Nathan Grimes, the Coach: Ronnie O'Shea. Yep. Thanks for the high placement! I hope Morgan lives up to it. He'll be host alright. He's a busy guy, now. He's scheduled to be at the University in September, wherever the peace talks are held (either Firaxis or Neuvo San Antonio), and now the Orion Cup! The latter will probably be the most enjoyable.

If you choose Sky Towers, then, that sounds good. Morganland is the title given to the main system, Castor, as it is undoubtedly the most built up.

LMP-- Man! That is a lot of clans!!

History Guy · May 13, 2002, 10:40

And hey, Mr. President, on your post--->

Let's get some more posts done, guys! Work! Hahahahahah!

Whoops...

Sprayber · May 13, 2002, 11:28

I would imagine that there won't be much work for Pirate Mercenaries now that one group skipped out on a contract.

History Guy · May 13, 2002, 11:41

Sprayber! Morgan is on the look-out for the Novans, as I trust, are the Spartans and Drones. They can run...but they can't hide forever!!

These Orion Sindicate guys are already doing business with Saleed and Gladden, as well as smaller organizations such as Boreo's guys, or the Laughren-McCulloch boys. Gladden isn't so much a friend of Morgan as a tollerated fellow, as he keeps his eyes on Saleed and the Pirate guys. Morgan uses him, but doesn't like him. He knows that Gladden can get away with stuff that even Morgan can't.

Mellian · May 13, 2002, 12:20

People, before going off with soccer... does anyone consider the gravity of different worlds? i am sure it would effect soccer and don't tell you invented gravitition techs and able to power it in a large scale as a soccer field.

As for the Pirates, i was thinking of the different kind of pirate clans...which i read a few variaties of pirate clans in other universes when i was exploring for names...and taking BTech ones too....

the average clan does piracy or whatever mainly out of survival. some use too but achieved self-sufficiency, so factions don't see them as much... some of those neutrals decided to move out in deep space where there is more room.... so when a faction explores, there is a chance to run into some Pirates and if you want to claim a system, there will be a chance your faction may have to fight them off. getting too crowded in the human core, so they move out.

yes, the mercenaries already started to run out of work...and i'm sure they will be slightly annoyed with the Novans, but oh well. which is why the main mercenary clans are with Kane, mainly because there is nothing to do and some not interested in going off pirating.

anyway, there is lot more clans... just many so small that it is not worth mentioning...

-mellian

Kassiopeia · May 13, 2002, 13:11

Quote:

People, before going off with soccer... does anyone consider the gravity of different worlds? i am sure it would effect soccer and don't tell you invented gravitition techs and able to power it in a large scale as a soccer field.

Good point! Teams would probably specifically travel to larger planets or special space stations to train under more heavy gravity, no?

This adds an entirely new perspective to the sport, come to think of it.

Sprayber · May 13, 2002, 13:21

Quote:

Originally posted by Mellian
People, before going off with soccer... does anyone consider the gravity of different worlds? i am sure it would effect soccer and don't tell you invented gravitition techs and able to power it in a large scale as a soccer field.

You don't think that people can adjust the amount of gravity in a large domed building? If they can't to that then how can they have gravity in some of those super dreadnaughts that some of you have.

Off the top of my head, I would think that any matches between different worlds would be played in an indoor area with a standardized gravity. That would provide some with an advantage and would hurt others. But that is the price you pay if you want to participate in inter world play.

Come to think of it, humans deal with that already in a smaller degree. When sporting events take place in cities with high altitudes, they have some of the same problems. I

Kassiopeia · May 13, 2002, 13:33

Oh yes, we haven't addressed artifical gravity yet. And I don't think we should. Quoting Dirk Gently; "At least the gravity's working." In this situation, what I mean is that if it works, don't bother about it. We have AG, and that's it.